SPRINGFIELD - The lawyer for Dennis Rosa Roman, charged with the slaying of Amanda Plasse in Chicopee, told a judge Wednesday he has to go through "massive amounts" of material given him by prosecutors.

Donald W. Frank, Rosa Roman's lawyer, said he was only appointed in late June for the case. He asked Hampden Superior Court Judge Mary Lou Rup to postpone a pretrial hearing from Wednesday to Oct. 20 and she agreed.

Rosa Roman was brought into court for the discussion, as members of Plasse's family sat in the courtroom.

Rosa Roman had been represented by William J. O'Neil before Frank was appointed.

Rosa Roman, 23, has been held without bail since his arrest in November for the 2011 killing of Plasse, 20, who was found stabbed to death on Aug. 26 in her third-floor apartment at 73 School St.

A state police report made public in March stated that DNA evidence led investigators to Rosa Roman, whom Plasse suspected of breaking into her apartment several weeks before she was killed.

The information was released after The Republican challenged then-Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni’s motion to impound the investigator’s report after Rosa Roman’s arraignment in Springfield District Court.